Reed McNeil Izatt (October 10, 1926 – October 29, 2023) was an American chemist who was emeritus Charles E. Maw Professor of Chemistry at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His field of research was macrocyclic chemistry and metal separation technologies.
Biography
Reed McNeil Izatt was born in Logan, Utah on October 10, 1926. His first ten years were spent on a ranch in Sumpter Valley, Oregon where he attended school in a two-room schoolhouse. He developed an interest in geology and astronomy. His family then returned to Logan, Utah and he graduated from Logan High School in 1944. On June 6, 1944, Izatt enrolled at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University).
In 1945 and 1946, Izatt served in the United States Army and from 1947 to 1949, he was a missionary in the United Kingdom for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While stationed at Fort Douglas, Izatt studied at the University of Utah and in 1951, he received a bachelor of science in chemistry. Izatt took postgraduate studies in chemistry at Pennsylvania State University. He was mentored by W. Conard Fernelius and in 1954 received a doctorate degree.
Izatt died in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 29, 2023, at the age of 97.
Career
Izatt worked at the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research (now part of Carnegie Mellon University) for two years before taking a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry at Brigham Young University (BYU). He retired from BYU in 1993 as the Charles E. Maw Professor of Chemistry. Izatt and James J. Christensen, a chemical engineer, founded a thermochemical institute at BYU to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary research.
ISI Ranking
Reed M. Izatt's number in the ISI rankings is 68.
Scientific work
Izatt and his colleagues, James J. Christensen and John L. Oscarson constructed and used a variety of novel high precision calorimeters to study a number of host and guest chemical systems of both academic and commercial interest. Izatts thermodynamic results have been used in the development of macrocyclic and supramolecular chemistry, molecular recognition, heats of mixing, nucleic acid chemistry, metal cyanide chemistry,<ref>Izatt, R. et al Thermodynamics of metal cyanide co-ordination. Part VII. Log K, ΔHo, and ΔSo values for the interaction of CN− with Pd2+. ΔHo values for the interaction of Cl− and Br−with Pd2+. J. Chem Soc. (A) 1967 pp1304-1308.</ref> chemical separations, amino acid microspecies formation,Zhang, X. et al Thermodynamics of macroscopic and microscopic proton ionization from protonated 4-aminobenzoic acid in aqueous solution from 298.15 to 393.15 K. J. Phys. Chem. B 2000 vol 104 pp8598-8605. and high- temperature corrosion chemistry,Oscarson, J. et al A model incorporating ion dissociation, solute concentration, and solution density effects to describe the thermodynamics of aqueous sodium chloride solutions in the critical region of water. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2004 vol 43 pp7635-7646.
Macrocyclic chemistry
Izatt and Christensen made the first extensive thermodynamic study using titration calorimetry of the highly selective metal complexation properties of metal-cyclic polyether interactions.Izatt, R. et al A calorimetric study of the interaction in aqueous solution of several uni- and bivalent metal ions with the cyclic polyether dicyclohexyl-18-Crown-6 at 10, 25, and 40 °C. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1971 vol 93 pp1619-1623. This work was followed by research correlating metal ion selectivity to macrocycle structure in a variety of solvents using a range of metal ions and organic amine cations.
Using chiral macrocycles and chiral alkylammonium salts, Izatt and his colleagues were the first to establish host–guest chiral recognition in a given system by more than one experimental method (temperature-dependent 1HNMR spectroscopy in CD2Cl2, titration calorimetry in methanol, and selective crystallization) and to report K, ΔH, and ΔS values for the interactions, thus quantitating the reactions.Davidson, R. et al. Enantiomeric recognition of organic ammonium salts by chiral crown ethers based on the pyridino-18-Crown-6 structure. J. Org. Chem. 1984 vol 49 pp353-357. Subsequent x- ray crystallographic results provided a structural basis for the recognition.